This masterful trolling has finally exposed a Trump myth

You may have noticed something. I used to talk about the president’s dementia pretty regularly, but haven’t in months. That’s because I’ve lost faith. I used to believe the Washington press corps would see the plainly obvious. I no longer believe that. The hypocrisy is too baked in.

The double standard that prevents political reporters from seeing Donald Trump’s totalitarianism is the same double standard that prevents them from seeing his dementia. He doesn’t make choices. Only Democrats do. He can’t be held responsible for what he says.

President Joe Biden tried to get his facts straight, because he believes in speaking truthfully and because he took seriously his role as an honest broker. But he sometimes stumbled over this or that word. He’s old. He’s a stutterer. Old stutterers sometimes mangle what they say. He was held responsible, anyway, and ultimately driven from office.

Trumpcan’t be a--ed when it comes to facts. He lies with confidence and “authority,” though what he says is often insane. No one says he has dementia. No one asks. Anyone who has seen it up close likely wonders why it seems like no one sees what’s plainly obvious.

In the absence of questions about his brains falling out of his ears, Trump looks strong. That’s his MO: do whatever you want, whenever you want, to whomever you want, safe in the knowledge that no one has the will to stop you. Therefore, if no one in the press corps has the will to doubt his mental fitness, then – voila! – he’s mentally fit, and every single unchallenged confabulation stands like a pillar of truth.

As long as the Washington press corps looks away from Trump’s dementia, he will never seem demented. And they will continue to look away, because they are incentivized to. They need attention. Trump brings attention, even when, or especially when, his statements are insane. As long as they do that, his insanity will seem like strength.

'Clearly trolling the president'

This is where Gavin Newsom comes in. I know virtually nothing about his record, but I do know the California governor has been pursuing a media strategy that is a model for other ambitious Democrats to follow. It also has the potential to expose the president’s weakness.

And Newsom doing that by unlikely means: copying Donald Trump.

First, some context. Last week, Newsom held what he called a “big beautiful press conference” in which he announced his intention to ask voters in California to approve a plan to redraw that state’s congressional districts in response to Texas’ bid to do the same.

He put the coming midterms in the context of insurrection.

“We’re here, because Donald Trump on January 6 tried to light democracy on fire, tried to wreck this county, tried to steal an election,” he said. “And here we are, in open and plain sight, before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm elections, and here he is, once again, trying to rig the system.”

Newsom added: “He doesn't play by a different set of rules. He doesn't believe in the rules. And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done. It's not enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt.

“We have got to meet fire with fire.”

While Newsom was making these remarks, the president’s secret police showed up outside. ICE agents reportedly arrested at least one person. The LA Times would later call the episode a “show of force.”

“Right outside, at this exact moment, are dozens and dozens of ICE agents,” Newsom said at the presser. “Do you think it's coincidental? … He's a failed president. Who else sends ICE at the same time we're having a conversation like this? Someone who's weak. Someone who's broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength."

After the presser, Newsom took questions from reporters. One asked about the ICE agents outside.

“It's pretty sick and pathetic,” the governor said. “It's everything you need to know, the setting we’re under. They chose the time, manner and place to send [ICE’s] district director outside, right when we’re about to have this press conference.

“It’s everything you know about Donald Trump's America,” Newsome said. “It was top-down. You know that for a fact. They’ll deny it, I’m sure. Maybe they won’t deny it. It’s everything you know about the authoritarian tendencies of the president of the United States. … Wake up, America. You will not have a country if he rigs this election. You will see a president running for a third term. Mark my words.”

But it was only at the end of the presser that Newsom’s media strategy came to light. It was when a reporter asked about “posts on X that are clearly trolling the president?” As the redoubtable Jamesetta Williams said, it was a brilliant strategy.

“He knows if he trolls the president by posting the way he does, the press will give him scrutiny that Trump escapes, allowing him to give this kind of compelling answer," she said.

Sounding like a demented old man

What answer?

“I hope it’s a wake up call for the president of the United States,” he said. “I’m just following his example. If you have issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns with what he’s putting out, as president. To the extent that it’s gotten some attention, I’m pleased, but I think the deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets and Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years to go without similar scrutiny and notice.”

See what’s going on here?

First, let’s note what he’s not doing. Newsom is not playing by the old playbook saying Democrats should not go low, where the Republicans always go, for fear of bringing every discussion down to their level. Newsom is playing two levels at the same time: calling for America to wake up before a despot completely takes over as well as mercilessly mocking said despot by using the same tone and tenor he uses daily.

Second, Newsom is counting on the press corps to be exactly what it is: an amoral group of attention-seekers that is happy to play along with Trump’s authoritarianism if it’s convenient, even if that means sacrificing their credibility by holding the Democrats to the highest standard while holding the Republicans to none at all.

For the last week, Newsom’s office has been trolling Trump (see the top image for an example), as Trump trolls everyone, and yesterday, a reporter wanted to know why, which is a question Newsom can predict will come from reporters who are oblivious to their double standard.

Third, he can comment on that double standard and raise awareness of it not only among people who consume the news but among people who produce it. It’s one thing for Newsom to say Donald Trump is weak and “broken” (that’s Newsom’s code word for dementia), and that his “weakness is masquerading as strength.” It is another to level those allegations while suggesting reporters have conspired for years in the masquerade. He suggests: You notice my trolling? You notice it sounds like I’m a demented old man yelling at clouds? But not Trump? Why?

And while all that is happening, Newsom is demonstrating what real strength is by calling on voters to defend their democracy while the president sends his goons to silence him. To be honest, Newsom could not have bought better staging of the message he was trying to send.

And with this trolling, I think Newsom paves the way for something even more powerful. Trump has convinced lots of Americans that the press corps is against them, because the press corps is liberal, and lots of reporters do backflips trying to prove they are not. But by trolling Trump — by speaking in the voice of an old man who has lost his mind — and by baiting the press corps into asking him about it, Newsom creates conditions in which it’s possible to see that the press corps protects Trump from the people by hiding the truth about him.

Donald Trump wants people to see the media through the lens of us-versus-them. Newsom is flipping that around, and I’m all for it.

Indeed, I think he should drop the other shoe.

Show up for his next press conference wearing a suit that’s too big, a tie that’s too long, pants that are pulled up too high, and a tan that obviously comes out of a spray can, all while bragging about how he’s the manliness man to ever walk the earth, despite falling in love with any man who flatters him, or chickening out at the sight of conflict.

I would love to hear questions about that.